CW#3

1. Road Design parameter

Fundamental parameters of traffic flow
Overview
Traffic engineering pertains to the analysis of the behavior of traffic and to design the
facilities for the smooth, safe and economical operation of traffic. Understanding traffic
behavior requires a thorough knowledge of traffic stream parameters and their mutual
relationships. In this chapter the basic concepts of traffic ow is presented.

Speed

Speed is considered as a quality measurement of travel as the drivers and passengers

will be concerned more about the speed of the journey than the design aspects of the
traffic. It is defined as the rate of motion in distance per unit of time. Mathematically
speed or velocity v is given by,
v =d/t
where, v is the speed of the vehicle in m/s, d is distance travelled in m in time t seconds.
Speed of different vehicles will vary with respect to time and space. To represent these
variation, several types of speed can be defined. Important among them are spot speed,
running speed, journey speed, time mean speed and space mean speed. These are
discussed below.

Spot Speed

Spot speed is the instantaneous speed of a vehicle at a specified location. Spot speed
can be used to design the geometry of road like horizontal and vertical curves, super
elevation etc. Location and size of signs, design of signals, safe speed, and speed zone
determination, require the spot speed data. Accident analysis, road maintenance, and
congestion are the modern fields of traffic engineer, which uses spot speed data as the
basic input. Spot speed can be measured using an enoscope, pressure contact tubes or
direct timing procedure or
radar speedometer or by time-lapse photographic methods. It can be determined by
speeds extracted from video images by recording the distance travelling by all vehicles
between a particular pair of frames.

Running speed

Running speed is the average speed maintained over a particular course while the
vehicle is moving and is found by dividing the length of the course by the time duration
the vehicle was in motion.

30.3.3 Journey speed

Journey speed is the effective speed of the vehicle on a journey between two points and
is the distance between the two points divided by the total time taken for the vehicle to
complete the journey including any stopped time. If the journey speed is less than
running speed, it indicates that the journey follows a stop-go condition with enforced
acceleration and deceleration. The spot speed here may vary from zero to some
maximum in excess of the running speed. A uniformity between journey and running
speeds denotes comfortable travel conditions.

Time mean speed and space mean speed

Time mean speed is defined as the average speed of all the vehicles passing a point on
a highway over some specified time period. Space mean speed is defined as the
average speed of all the vehicles occupying a given section of a highway over some
specified time period. Both mean speeds will always be different from each other except
in the unlikely event that all vehicles are travelling at the same speed. Time mean speed
is a point measurement while space mean speed is a measure relating to length of
highway or lane, i.e. the mean speed of vehicles over a period of time at a point in
space is time mean speed and the mean speed over a space at a given instant is the
space mean speed.

Flow

There are practically two ways of counting the number of vehicles on a road. One is ow
or volume, which is defined as the number of vehicles that pass a point on a highway or
a given lane or direction of a highway during a specific time interval. The measurement
is carried out by counting the number of vehicles, nt, passing a particular point in one
lane in a defined period t. Then the ow q expressed in vehicles/hour is given by

q =nt/t

Flow is expressed in planning and design field taking a day as the measurement of
time.

Variations of Volume

The variation of volume with time, i.e. month to month, day to day, hour to hour and
within a hour is also as important as volume calculation. Volume variations can be
observed from season to season. Volume will be above average in a pleasant motoring
month of summer, but will be more pronounced in rural than in urban area. But this is
the most consistent of all the variations and affects the traffic stream characteristics the
least.
Weekdays, Saturdays and Sundays will also face difference in pattern. But comparing
day with day, patterns for routes of a similar nature often show a marked similarity,
which is useful in enabling predictions to be made.
The most significant variation is from hour to hour. The peak hour observed during
mornings and evenings of weekdays, which is usually 8 to 10 per cent of total daily ow
or 2 to 3 times the average hourly volume. These trips are mainly the work trips, which
are relatively stable with time and more or less constant from day to day.

Types of volume measurements

Since there is considerable variation in the volume of traffic, several types of

measurements of volume are commonly adopted which will average these variations
into a single volume count to be used in many design purposes.
1. Average Annual Daily Traffic(AADT) : The average 24-hour traffic volume at a given
location over a full 365-day year, i.e. the total number of vehicles passing the site in a
year divided by 365.
2. Average Annual Weekday Traffic(AAWT) : The average 24-hour traffic volume
occurring on weekdays over a full year. It is computed by dividing the total weekday
tra_c volume for the year by 260.
3. Average Daily Traffic(ADT) : An average 24-hour traffic volume at a given location for
some period of time less than a year. It may be measured for six months, a season, a
month, a week, or as little as two days. An ADT is a valid number only for the period
over which it was measured.
4. Average Weekday Traffic(AWT) : An average 24-hour traffic volume occurring on
weekdays for some period of time less than one year, such as for a month or a season.
The relationship between AAWT and AWT is analogous to that between AADT and
ADT. Volume in general is measured using different ways like manual counting,
detector/sensor counting, moving-car observer method, etc. Mainly the volume study
establishes the importance of a particular route with respect to the other routes, the
distribution of traffic on road, and the fluctuations in ow. All which eventually determines
the design of a highway and the related facilities. Thus, volume is treated as the most
important of all the parameters of traffic stream.

Figure 30:1: Illustration of density

Density

Density is defined as the number of vehicles occupying a given length of highway or

lane and is generally expressed as vehicles per km/mile. One can photograph a length
of road x, count the number of vehicles, nx, in one lane of the road at that point of time
and derive the density k as,

k = nx/x

This is illustrated in figure 30:1. From the figure, the density is the number of vehicles
between the point A and B divided by the distance between A and B. Density is also
equally important as ow but from a different angle as it is the measure most directly
related to traffic demand. Again it measures the proximity of vehicles which in turn
measures the freedom to maneuver and comfort of drivers.

CE 320 Transportation Engineering I

Traffic forecast

The Department of Transport has prepared National Road Traffic Forecasts7 (NRTF)
which are
based on national models with two alternative sets of assumptions on car ownership
and usage
and on goods haulage. The resultant two sets of forecasts of traffic growth are known
as high
growth and low growth. These forecasts are of increased vehicle kilometrage, which
translates directly into an increase in traffic on a section of road.
The forecasts have been prepared to year 2026 as shown in Table 4.1. As an example,
the forecasts predict a growth in traffic between 1996 and 2011 of between 27% (low
growth) and 43% (high growth).
Use of these forecasts is appropriate only when counts of traffic are available for the
particular
section of road being studied. When the origins and destinations of trips on the road
have been
surveyed (or are available from a traffic model) then local growth factors rather than the
national forecasts can be used. These local growth factors are also based on the
national models and are available at local authority district level in these models. At this
disaggregated level, they reflect local zonal projections of planning data. The local
factors are available as trip-end estimates for each District from the Department of
Transports TEMPRO program. A national forecast adjustment factor (NFAF) then has
to be applied to make these local forecasts of travel compatible with the NRTF, which
records the forecast growth in vehicle kilometers. In its simplest form, this approach can
give an estimate of future growth as the average of the local factors weighted by the
trips from each origin and then adjusted by NFAF.
This growth factor approach then estimates the future trip generation and distribution
while
assuming that modal split and assignment remain constant.
 2. Public Transport

Public Transport Priority

Design objectives

Public transport priority has to be seen in the context of an overall urban transport
strategy with
objectives which include not only improved bus (or tram) operation and restraint of car-
borne
commuting but also an enhanced environment for residents, workers and visitors.
Measures proposed
must serve all these objectives and yet also be demonstrably cost-effective and
enforceable.
Typical design objectives for public transport priority measures include:
_ to improve the conditions and reliability of bus operations through the introduction
of appropriate bus priority measures;
_ to alter the traffic balance in favour of buses at those locations where this can be
properly justified;
_ to improve conditions for bus passengers at stops and interchanges;
_ to improve road safety generally and, in particular, for pedestrians, cyclists and people
with disabilities;
_ to review, where appropriate, hours of operation of waiting and loading restrictions;
_ to establish and implement the co-ordinated and coherent application of waiting,
parking and loading enforcement regimes on bus route corridors;
_ to improve conditions for all road users and frontagers on bus route corridors.
Achieving these objectives often involves compromises between improving bus
operation and
the needs of local businesses and residents for reasonable access and of pedestrians
and cyclists
for safe and convenient movement.
Bus priority measures should be seen as part of the tool kit that will enable the
realisation of the
transport strategy. The impact of these measures on bus operation can be powerful, yet
that impact
should not be exaggerated. On their own, bus priority measures are unlikely to cause
the major shift
in travel from car to bus that is often needed to improve the urban environment. Yet,
combined
with other measures, bus priority can contribute to a strategy of improving the urban
environment
and road safety and minimising the need for car travel. Typical other measures include:
_ a restrictive city centre parking policy for commuters;
_ improved bus services including park and ride;
_ improved bus information for passengers;
_ more road space provided for pedestrians and cyclists
_ traffic calming measures in residential cells;
_ compatible policies for controlling new development in line with planning policy
guidance as set out by the DoE.